Jim Holmes has announced that his latest brain child conference is open for registration. Of course, registration is free.

So what is it? You don’t need to ask. If Jim is doing it, then it’s worth your time. Ok, if you don’t buy that, then how about a whole dedicated to learning how to better engineer software. All software, not just .NET stuff.

The event will be at the Microsoft office, near Polaris, in Columbus, Ohio.

While I was at devLink I presented a talk called "5 frameworks you can’t live without.” I wanted to talk to people about how to not be a plumber, and how to reduce the code you write to only what only someone like you can write. I also wanted to share some frameworks that I know a lot of people are using and having success with.

This deck is very unsophisticated, and it has a very interesting origination story. I will be happy to share it with anyone who buys me a drink. Big thanks to Mike Wood for helping me with it.

As a whole, devLink was a blast. It is always fun to attend it. If you didn’t get to go you should mark it on your calendar for next year.

My good friend Wes Brock just let me know that Wintellect will be offering a 2 day training course on how to build applications for Azure for $499. The course will be delivered by Paul Mehner, online. This is great news, so you don’t have to travel to sit in on the class. The training will be on October 21-22, 2009.

I want to thank everyone that came out to the Community Leadership Summit in Nashville. If you missed it, don’t worry. There will be another one around CodeMash time.

After the opening comments and lunch, we brain stormed a series of interesting conversations, and then scheduled them in a grid. Whomever came up with the session idea had to act as the proctor, and take notes. Each session lasted about 30 minutes. At the end of all of the sessions, each moderator presented the results of their session. Matt Hester recorded these summaries, and they should be available shortly. Until then, here are the notes. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to enter them into the local community wiki, so if someone wants to do handle that, that would be fabulous. Otherwise, I will try to get to in in October.

At this point I am just transcribing the notes. They are not complete. Many times I don’t know what the intention of the note is. If you know, please leave a comment here, or update the wiki (when that is working.)

Session One: Alternative Meeting Formats

Hands on meetings with the topic

Geek Dinner : meet out after the event for dinner. Everyone eats Dutch. Great way to socialize and network.

Fishbowl style: I know a lot of groups that meet this way. It is a great way to have a discussion about a topic and keep the conversation flowing.

Give tickets out for participation for the meeting prizes.

Code + Coffee : About 10 people show up before work at a local coffee shop to pair on some code they are interested in. No set topic. Bring some real code, a pet project, or just something you want to look at.

Virtual Meetings : Can’t find enough people in your area that are passionate about what you want to talk about? Start a virtual meeting. Using Facebook, Linked In, and services like Live Meeting or Oovoo, you can have your meeting no matter where people live.

Lightening Talks : A series of very short and targeted talks by a series of speakers. This is a great way to help new speakers get their foot in the door without a lot of stress and prep work.

Open Spaces / Community Courtyard : These are very popular, and most people are now familiar with the approach.

Session Two: Engaging the Open Source Community

The project needs a strong leader

A good project is easy to patch

Have your team adopt a project

Tool availability can be an issue

Popularity of a project

Presence

Need

Caretaking

Ease

Source included on install

Session Three: Growing user group membership

Membership drive

Have a minimum amount of new members for the big prize

Appropriate Venue

Size

Location

Perhaps multiple locations on different days

Meet the needs of the community

job

network

learn

Greet and include new members

Paid membership (need corp buy in)

Consistency

Use email to announce meetings

corporate

public service announcements

collect email of attendees

Flyers handed out about next months meeting

Golden rule: always have the next three meetings planned out

Bring a buddy, get first pick @ prizes

Session Four: Conquering the Digital Divide

CAP in Cleveland

How to bridge

Library free classes

use local community centers

How to find passion around cause

community events

after events

Work local individuals

work with Wal-mart

Use the tech community as a resource

Session Five: Providing value for event/UG attendees

Networking and relationships

People appreciate whenever they can contribute

Topic Variety

Session Six: Non Profit Status. When. Why. How.

Money

2 board members on the bank account

both have to sign each check

limits are determined in the bylaws

Organization

Board of directors

Treasurer

Code of ethics

By Laws

Articles of incorporation

Submit to the IRS

Get temp tax number

can be used for sponsorship

Temp tax number will become EIN

When?

If you are taking money

Liability

Session Seven: Speaking More Better

Role Models

Seth Godin

Scott Hanselman

Dramatic volume and pauses

Play a character

Slide management (not too many)

Should be conversational

Reading: Presenting to Win

Find self confidence (You are good enough)

Audience size shouldn’t matter

Join Toastmasters

Practice, then practice again

Prep time is essential

Start with lightening talks

define your success factors

eval comments are more important than scores

Movie: Comedian (Jerry Seinfeld)

It is about honing your craft

Don’t submit a talk because you want to learn a topic or subject

Show the demo, then how to build it

Session Eight: Running a Lean Event

Do more with less

Prioritize spending with a list of everything at the event. As money comes in, move down the list.

Food is the largest variable cost

Surveys have shown 85% would prefer a free event with no food over a paid event with lunch

Plan for 45-60 minutes for people to go get food. There should be options close. A food court, or bring in a caterer that will take cash on the spot.

Do snacks only

You can charge a little to cover hard costs

$25 is just enough for people to make an easy spend decision, and also big enough to make sure they show up

Do a budget, with fixed and variable costs

Get T+Cs when people pay for a ticket from creative commons

Pizza isn’t required at a user group. You can meet without food.

Perhaps dues at a meeting

When trying to get a sponsor to renew for a new year, or the next event, send them the info with an invoice to make it easy for them to pay

If you want to learn more about what is new in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, you should attend this event. We will get you up to speed on the latest features, and how you can delight your users with some of these new features:

DirectAccess, Group Policy and PowerShell, new Internet Explorer 8 features.

New BitLocker, AppLocker and User Account Control Features

Easy Windows 7 deployment

Direct Access is great. It allows me to VPN into our corporate network without the VPN hoops. It sets up in the background, on demand, based on what resources I want to access. It also allows a remote IT Admin to manage my box (for example, to push a critical patch) at any time, not only when I finally VPN in.

PowerShell is also pretty fantastic, for both IT Pros and developers. It is a very powerful shell that is object oriented, and has full access into the whole platform, so you automate a lot of your work.

If you are looking for a way to learn more about Silverlight, Expression, RIA Services, and the related toolkits, here is your chance.

On September 17th, we will be hosting an online event, that will be keynoted by Scott Guthrie. But that’s not all. There will also be presentations by Tim Heuer, Brad Abrams, Karl Shifflett and others.